Untitled (Black Love)

Carrie Mae Weems (b. 1953) Untitled (Black Love), 1999/2001 Three gelatin silver prints 15 × 15 in. (each) The Studio Museum in Harlem; Museum purchase with funds provided by the Acquisition Committee 2002.20.1

Carrie Mae Weems’s work often positions viewers as onlookers bearing witness to intimate scenes of reverie and respite. Untitled (Black Love) evinces her interest in the personal as political, making the viewer privy to moments in life that are not often visible or acknowledged. The three-part work resembles a storyboard for a film, unfolding to reveal a nighttime encounter between two lovers. In a darkened interior, the figures embrace and become a single silhouette.